The present invention relates to the manufacture of tires, and more particularly, it relates to the type of apparatus described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,801,344, issued Apr. 20, 1987.
This apparatus is used for the manufacture of reinforcements for tires from a single cord and comprises, among its essential parts, cord retaining means borne by levers, referred to in the patent as "support arms," and means for presenting the cord to the retaining means. In the examples described, the cord presenting means embodies a rotary arm which assures the unwinding and hooking of the cord to the retention means. The cord retention means, in turn, embodies a pair of hooks and the unwinding of the cord is assured by dispensing the cord from an orifice which is located at the end of the rotary arm.
In a first stage of manufacture, only the first hook acts to assure the hooking and the retaining of the cord presented by the rotary arm. The position of the second hook is such that each of the two lengths of cord leaving the first hook is arranged on an opposite side of the second hook. It is only upon the lowering of the levers that the point of the second hook engages and retains one of the two lengths of cord in order to move them somewhat apart from each other so as to be able to insert a bead wire through the opening in the loop of the cord.